CRÉATEUR’s Unpublished Créative Megan Carter
“My art explores how our unique identities and human experiences impact our relationship to the world around us. In my work, I highlight the push and pull of harm and healing through the use of dramatic lighting and color contrast, creating movement and imbuing my pieces with emotion.”
Being a Queer survivor of sexual assault, I derive inspiration from my trauma as a form of resilience. I aim to celebrate the determination of marginalized groups and convey our varied struggles visually. I favor depictions of surreal landscapes and natural scenery interacting with the human form, such as a woman floating across the sky or a powerful androgynous figure melding with the land and sea. I enjoy experimenting with a variety of media to build layers and textures, but my deepest love is for oil and acrylic paints. I have also worked over the last two years to develop additional skills in digital art, candle-making, resin pouring, sculpting clay, among other media.
Art has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. The early days were mostly wobbly potato-creatures in crayon, that later evolved into graphite sketches of horses on printer paper, inspired by my deep adoration of DreamWorks’ Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron (2002). My art has changed over time with my interests and by learning new techniques in art classes throughout grade school. However, the most significant changes to my art and style came after a period of creative drought. I didn’t pick up a pencil or a brush much in college, but found my inspiration again when I found my people. They are all artists in their own rights and helped me to remember why I love to paint.
The last couple of years have been a rollercoaster, and my mental health, like so so many others’, was impacted deeply by isolation and the devastating news cycle. Despite this, I created much more frequently since I had my own space. Eventually I realized that I knew what would make me most happy. Being a full-time artist has always been just a dream for me, but after my partner and I decided to move from Denver to the Seattle area, I decided that I want to pursue that dream. If anyone finds my art meaningful, then that will be a success for me. I am both nervous and ecstatic to be taking this leap and I hope it helps me to connect with others who are inspired by the meaningful things in their lives.
“Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe impossible things.' I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. There goes the shawl again!” ― Lewis Carroll
I never grew out of enjoying fantastical worlds and whimsical tales. As a lil’ sprout, I often visited the worlds of Middle Earth, Terabithia, Narnia, and Neverland. These stories offered an escape and a place to let the imagination run wild, but they also offered a profound connection to the world around us. Stories aren’t separate from the people that breathe life into them, they are an extension of that individual and a product of all the things that made them who they were in that time. Their fantasies are unique to them, yet so many can relate, sometimes long after the writer put pen to paper. My work explores the intersection between our realities and fantasies. The surreal, the impossibly possible. Like Carroll’s Red Queen, I like to let my imagination run wild as much as I can and ask, what if the laws of reality didn’t apply here? What if instead of water surrounding me when I jumped into a pool, it was a field of daisies? How would that contrast with a field of thorny roses? While worldbuilding, all ideas have value. I often find that when I go back to an old notebook and find a scribbled idea or sketch that at the time didn’t spark much more for me, I am now ready to tease out that thread. Ready to weave that tale.
Ideas To Work By:
Overthinking is the bane of progress. When I notice that I’m getting stuck on a piece it’s usually because I’m letting myself focus too hard on the image in my head instead of the work in front of me. That’s my indicator to take a breath, step away for a bit, and come back to it when I’m ready to let myself flow more freely. You can always go back in and refine and honestly sometimes my end results are better than what I had pictured to begin with.
Believe in the value of your art. Just because someone else doesn’t see it’s full worth doesn’t mean you need to compromise on price. You are worth standing by the time, effort, heart, and soul you poured into your work.
Everything has meaning but not everything adds value to the message you’re trying to communicate. The strongest messages are sometimes the simplest. Let your work speak for itself!
